1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the field of meat packing and in particular to devices which may be used in meat packing operations to remove membranes from meat products.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
In the meat packing field, there presently exists a number of different ways for removing membranes or skins from meat products. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 537,215 and 1,377,872 disclose methods for skinning whole animals, such as cattle, which essentially comprise inserting a nozzle underneath the animal's skin and activating a pneumatic valve to pressurize the end of the nozzle. In this manner, the skin can be lifted from the animal and separated from the carcass.
More recently, methods have been proposed for removing for example skin from fish which involve the use of pressurized liquid squirting from nozzles to remove the fish skin from the flesh. In some cases the skin may be pre-treated in an acid bath or the like to facilitate removal of the skin. Examples of this kind of skin 25 removing device are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,546,738; 4,020,528; 3,453,684 and 4,765,030.
Additionally, there are devices of a type which involve mechanical gripping action, such as conical toothed rollers, for the purpose of removing the skin from meat products. An example of this type of product may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,143.
While some of these devices are stand alone devices others are integrated into conveyor systems for continuous processing of meat products.
While the foregoing processes and devices are suitable for certain applications, there are other applications where a particularly strong bond exists between a membrane or a skin and a meat product. In such cases, the use of remote nozzles to remove the membrane from the meat product may not be sufficient.